The Longsight Group

What The Longsight Group does

The Longsight Group (legal entity Longsight Inc.) is a private, founder-owned software and services company headquartered in Independence, Ohio, that builds open-source education technology for higher-education institutions. Founded in 2004 by Sam Ottenhoff and Scott Siddall, the company has operated inside campus technology for two decades, working with more than 100 schools including Duke, NYU, University of Michigan, Pepperdine, Wellesley, Illinois State, Loyola University Chicago, OHSU, TTUHSC, University of Limerick, and Brock University. Its commercial product portfolio now spans five distinct offerings: CredTrail (digital badging and credential verification using Open Badges 3.0 and W3C Verifiable Credentials), QFlowLearn (QTI 3.0 assessment authoring with a high-concurrency delivery layer built for up to 100,000 concurrent students), AppBoundary (a managed LTI platform for instructor-built AI learning apps), Soonward (accessibility remediation services for public institutions), and Winnowr (academic integrity with plagiarism detection and AI authorship review support).

The underlying technology stack is TypeScript-first and built on Deno, Fresh, Preact, Postgres with Drizzle ORM, Cloudflare R2, and native Web Components, with a deliberate emphasis on standards compliance (QTI 3.0, Open Badges 3.0, LTI, OneRoster 1.2, SCORM 2004) and zero third-party runtime dependencies in core QTI packages. Longsight also publishes and maintains open-source TypeScript libraries on npm and contributes to the Sakai LMS project, using a developer-relations and ecosystem strategy alongside a direct enterprise sales motion.

Commercially, Longsight generates revenue through subscription and managed-service agreements for hosted or campus-run deployments of its products, with quote-based pricing for educational institutions of all sizes and an option to self-host open-source code. Distribution combines enterprise field sales (with security questionnaire and procurement workflows), product-led self-serve websites for each product, and community-led open-source adoption. The company is bootstrapped with no disclosed outside funding, operates with a headcount band of 11-50 employees, and has launched or announced four new commercial products within roughly 18 months, indicating a deliberate strategy to convert accumulated institutional expertise into a multi-product SaaS portfolio.

Name

The Longsight Group

Legal name

Longsight Inc.

Website

https://longsight.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2004

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Higher Education Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Services (611)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Standards, Packaging & Interoperability Tools (SCORM/xAPI/cmi5/LTI) (EDAFAHAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

OER Repositories, Discovery & Metadata Services (EDAGAJAL), Higher Education Course Design & Online Program Development (EDAGAKAB)

Keywords

• Edtech software
• Digital credentialing
• Assessment authoring
• Accessibility remediation
• Learning platforms

Headquarters

HQ city

Ohio

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Open-source software products with support services: Longsight provides open-source education software with options for hosted services (operated by Longsight) or self-run deployment (campus-run instances). Revenue comes from software services, support, and hosting for educational institutions.
2. Educational institution pricing: Special pricing offered for educational institutions of all sizes. Contact-based pricing model for institutional purchases.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Longsight builds and supports open-source education software for higher education institutions, sold as subscription-hosted or self-run campus deployments. Its commercial portfolio covers digital badging and verifiable credentials (CredTrail), QTI 3.0 assessment authoring and high-concurrency delivery (QFlowLearn), a managed LTI launch and security layer for instructor-led AI learning apps (AppBoundary), accessibility remediation services (Soonward), and academic integrity software with an open evidence trail (Winnowr).

Product overview

Longsight offers five commercial products built on two decades of higher-ed software experience, plus several open-source TypeScript libraries. The commercial portfolio centers on: CredTrail (open-source digital badging with verifiable credentials), QFlowLearn (QTI 3.0 assessment authoring and high-scale delivery), AppBoundary (LTI launch platform for AI learning apps), Soonward (accessibility remediation services), and Winnowr (academic integrity with plagiarism detection). These products share a philosophy of open-source code, standards compliance (QTI, Open Badges, LTI, OneRoster, SCORM), and deployment flexibility (hosted by Longsight or self-run on campus). Complementing the commercial products, Longsight publishes open-source TypeScript packages for QTI 3.0 runtime and OneRoster 1.2 integration on npm.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CredTrail: Digital badges institutions can host, audit, and verify outside a vendor bundle.
• QFlowLearn
• AppBoundary
• Soonward
• Winnowr

Products and services

• CredTrail Open-source digital badging and credential verification platform for institutions that need inspectable code, portable badges, public verification, wallet support, and either Longsight-hosted or self-run deployment. Supports Open Badges 3.0 and W3C Verifiable Credentials 2.0 with Ed25519 signing.
• QFlowLearn QTI 3.0 assessment authoring and delivery platform: open-source authoring tool with import support for QTI 1.2/2.1/2.2/3.0, editing, validation, preview, packaging, and export, paired with a separate Cloudflare-backed closed-source delivery layer built for high-concurrency test events from 1 to 100,000 concurrent students.
• AppBoundary Managed boundary layer for LTI launches, roster context, grade passback, privacy review, security review, and operational controls for instructor-led AI learning apps integrated with the LMS.
• Soonward Accessibility remediation service for public higher-education teams handling documents, pages, workflows, and follow-up reviews after accessibility audits, with RFP-ready services.
• Winnowr Academic integrity software starting with plagiarism detection and built with an open evidence trail so institutions can review decisions, with positioning to support AI authorship review.

Quantifiable outcome

• 100+ schools served across two decades

Named customers11 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Turnitin: Established academic integrity and assessment platform serving higher education. Directly comparable to Winnowr's plagiarism and AI authorship detection focus, with much larger market share and institutional penetration.
• Moodle: Open-source LMS with a large higher-ed user base. Comparable as an open-source alternative to commercial LMS suites and as a platform where standards interoperability (LTI, QTI, OneRoster) is similarly important.
• Credly: Digital credentialing platform owned by Pearson, serving higher-ed and enterprise buyers. Most direct competitor to CredTrail on open badge issuing, verification, and wallet support.
• Open edX: Open-source learning platform widely used in higher education. Competes for the same open-source-inclined institutions and shares standards-based interoperability needs around LTI, QTI, and credentials.
• Sakai LMS: Open-source learning management system community where Longsight contributes patches and operational expertise. Many Longsight customers run Sakai, making the project a direct extension of Longsight's core business.
• Parchment: Credential and records platform serving higher education institutions. Overlaps with CredTrail's portable credential vision, particularly around verification, wallet support, and inter-institutional portability.

Broad incumbents

• Instructure (Canvas): Major LMS and credentials vendor serving higher education. Overlaps with Longsight's standards-based tools (LTI, OneRoster, Open Badges) and competes on the same institutional buyers, but at much larger scale and as a bundled suite.
• D2L (Brightspace): Established higher-ed LMS vendor with growing assessment, competency, and credentials offerings. Competes with Longsight on the same procurement processes and increasingly on standards-based interoperability.
• Blackboard: Legacy LMS incumbent serving higher education globally. Overlaps with Longsight on standards implementations and assessment tooling as part of a broader suite rather than a specialized open-source offering.
• Anthology: Higher-ed software suite formed from Campus Management, Blackboard (acquired portfolio), and other edtech assets. Competes broadly for institutional budgets that Longsight also targets, including accessibility and credentialing workflows.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/longsightgroup
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/longsight
• Xx.com/longsight_inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Longsight Group